NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate has started probing the al-Qaida link in Jharkhand’s land scam case in which CM Hemant Soren was arrested earlier and is one of the accused in its money laundering case. ED has summoned Babloo Khan, who runs a hospital in Ranchi, on Monday after it was found that an al-Qaida cell busted by the Delhi Police special cell Thursday had employed members of the suspected terror module.
Babloo Khan is brother of Afsar Ali, arrested by ED in April from Ranchi in the land scam case. According to sources, the hospital Khan was running in Ranchi was registered in the name of Ishtiaq Ahmed, an al-Qaida suspect who was arrested in a joint operation by the Delhi Police special cell and the Special Task Force (STF) of Jharkhand Police on Thursday.
Ahmed is a radiologist like Afsar Ali and both worked in the hospital run by Babloo Khan, sources said. Ahmed was arrested as the prime suspect behind an al-Qaida cell called al-Qaida in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) that had members across Jharkhand, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Afsar Ali and five of his associates, including Md Saddam Hussain, were arrested in April for their role in forgery, tampering and fabrication of land records and registering them in the name of beneficiaries of the land scam. “During investigation, active involvement of govt officials of land revenue department located in Ranchi and Kolkata had surfaced. Some of the lands acquired through such falsification and forgery by the above accused are under illegal possession of CM Hemant Soren,” ED had said following the arrest of Afsar Ali.
Jharkhand HC on June 28 had ordered Soren’s release on bail, observing that “none of the registers/revenue records” cited by ED in its land scam and money laundering probe “bear imprint of the direct involvement of the petitioner”.
Babloo Khan is brother of Afsar Ali, arrested by ED in April from Ranchi in the land scam case. According to sources, the hospital Khan was running in Ranchi was registered in the name of Ishtiaq Ahmed, an al-Qaida suspect who was arrested in a joint operation by the Delhi Police special cell and the Special Task Force (STF) of Jharkhand Police on Thursday.
Ahmed is a radiologist like Afsar Ali and both worked in the hospital run by Babloo Khan, sources said. Ahmed was arrested as the prime suspect behind an al-Qaida cell called al-Qaida in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) that had members across Jharkhand, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Afsar Ali and five of his associates, including Md Saddam Hussain, were arrested in April for their role in forgery, tampering and fabrication of land records and registering them in the name of beneficiaries of the land scam. “During investigation, active involvement of govt officials of land revenue department located in Ranchi and Kolkata had surfaced. Some of the lands acquired through such falsification and forgery by the above accused are under illegal possession of CM Hemant Soren,” ED had said following the arrest of Afsar Ali.
Jharkhand HC on June 28 had ordered Soren’s release on bail, observing that “none of the registers/revenue records” cited by ED in its land scam and money laundering probe “bear imprint of the direct involvement of the petitioner”.
